Epilogue

June 2004

"Reid." Elle said, musing in her voice. "Come here."

"What?" It was months after he had arrested Uncle Ed. In that time Spencer and Lucero had focused on getting healthy, undoing the damage the years of dealing with him had done physically and mentally. He would always be an ectomorph, long and lean instead of bulky, but the body that moved in her direction was carrying muscle now. He couldn't fight like Morgan, couldn't lift like him, but he could out-sprint him now, and run for a lot longer. And other than aching legs from time to time he felt amazing. He had no reason to complain.

"Take your shoes off." She said as she stood and started gathering things out of her desk.

"What?"

"Take your shoes off." Okay. He slid his shoes off and padded over when she motioned him. "Stand against the wall."

"Seriously?"

"Stand against the wall. Straight." He stood with his back to the wall and felt her ruler lightly touch his head. "I said straight." He adjusted and heard her scratch a little mark with her pencil. "Hey Garcia, how tall is Reid in his personnel file?"

"Ummm..." Garcia sat at Elle's desk and accessed the files. "Six-one, why?"

Elle got her measuring tape and checked. "Because he just went down in history as the first agent to go through a growth spurt while at the Bureau. Six-four."

"What?" Spencer was shocked. No way.

"Yep. You stopped eating before you finished growing. Looks like you finally caught up." Elle said.

"You're taller than Morgan and Hotch now." Garcia said with a smile.

Spencer considered this, and then smiled. "I'm not going to complain."

"Hey." A familiar voice called out to Spencer. "There you are. Did we miss it?"

Where he was was in the middle of a very crowded VIP box at the Firefly festival, listening to a DJ get the crowd worked up. "No." He told Morgan over the music. "They're up next."

"Cool. The Chief said he'd give you your yellow brick when you got back." Morgan yelled back. He had his arm around Penelope, who just beamed.

"Thanks. I know Lucero wants to be there." His yellow brick. He had passed the confidence course just that morning, the only time he could, knocking the waivers out of his file. Not the best score ever but a solid one. It was the result of months of patient hard work and healing but it was all worth it. Now the team knew they could rely on him to keep up in the field.

"She will be. We'll make sure of that."

Just then the music changed, the crowd cheered and Tim the DJ took the stage. They turned to watch and wait anxiously.

Twenty minutes in the music shifted, the stage lights went down, and a spot light focused on a single woman. Nothing flashy about her, jeans and a white shirt and a red guitar named Lucille.

We, we don't have to worry 'bout nothing
'Cause we got the fire, and we're burning one hell of a something
They, they gonna see us from outer space, outer space
Light it up, like we're the stars of the human race

Spencer held his breath. She seemed nervous, a little on edge, not quite comfortable. Maybe it was the new sort of music or still getting used to having energy in her system or maybe it was that forty thousand people were watching her. Could she do this?

Then she built to the chorus, swung Lucille off her hip, hit the chord and as he watched the magic picked her up and took her. In that moment she became the most alive thing in the universe.

And we gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
We gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
Gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn
We gonna let it burn

Two nights later they celebrated his award, her success, their finally being cleared with good, solid health. Celebration was pizza at Moe's with the team, eaten in public without fear.

And now there was this. Quantico was a military base, home to the US Marines as well as FBI headquarters, but it was also a town. A very secure town set in the middle of that base, but also a quiet little New England village with a bustling downtown, a train line to DC and a lovely park on the water. There, safe from the cartel and any other demons out there, they had found a home. "I want to celebrate tonight." Lucero said as they climbed the steps to the front porch of the small cottage.

"I thought we had been celebrating."

"We have. I mean something different."

"Oh?" For an answer she turned and kissed him, a meaningful sort of kiss that promised a great deal and begged for even more. Not the first time they had returned to this after getting back to healthy, but something that still surprised him. "Oh."

Of course that was when his phone went off.

Lucero was leaning against his chest and laughing quietly as he hung up. "You have to go to work." She said with no anger in her voice.

"Amber alert." He replied with a sigh, before leaning down to kiss her again. "Rain check?"

"You know it." One more kiss. "Come home to me."

"Always."

"What is this?" Elle asked as she stepped through the doorway.

This was a small, luxurious business jet, all sleek wood and white leather. "It was confiscated by the DEA." Hotch said. "We were assigned since time is important with some of our cases. They're hoping it will save money as well."

"I'm not going to complain." Gideon said.

But Spencer was laughing. "What?" Morgan asked.

"Look in that seat." He said, pointing to a grouping of two chairs by the galley.

Morgan poked around the seat, finally sliding his hand between the seat cushion and the back. He came back with some slender bits of plastic. "Guitar picks? Wait, this was Salazar's old plane?" Spencer nodded. Morgan laughed, "Looks like we're all going to live the life of a kingpin's kid now."

"This time it's working for good." Hotch said. But he was looking at Spencer when he said it. "Let's get to work on the case."

.

Lyrics from "Burn", words and music by Ryan Tedder, Elle Goulding, Greg Kurstin, Noel Zancanella, and Brent Kutsel. No copyright infringement intended.

And so we come to the end of another tale. Once again much thanks to my editor REIDFANATIC, who thankfully shares my love of '80s pop-rock.

My next story is going up tonight so those who want can subscribe. Posting will be a bit slow until the holiday gifts are done, but they will keep coming.

Thank you all for reading!

- TKL